The realities of work and new forms of web-based communication technology

A journey into the world of a cold caller

Knowing how people respond to and feel about cold calling is regulalry documented. However, spare a thought for call centre workers who are typically subjected to a range of abuse as part of their daily job.

To paraphrase the words of Jon Ronson of The Guardian, an article entitled Cold sweat is intended to be a journey into the world of the cold caller, to see how mangled their psyches are as a result of being constantly abused by people like himself.

It is a rather long article by the unusual standards of even a weekend newspaper and here is just a few highlights of a very insightful look at an increasingly common type of employment.

Here is an excerpt that describes an attempts to motivate staff:

"They have these strokey-beard meetings every so often at the DMA," Steve says. "'Let's make a list of all the good things about cold calling.' Half an hour later they're still stroking their beards. Someone may save Â£50 on their gas bill, but in doing so 99 people are disturbed while watching Coronation Street."

And on the future of cold calling/call centre work:

"Yes, we will," he says. "It'll just go offshore. The regulators can't do anything about an American company that calls into the UK from an Indian or an American call centre. Expect in the next few years recorded call messages into the UK from overseas call centres offering Viagra, pirated software, fake degrees, porn, get-rich-quick schemes ... "

"So it'll get worse," I say, "even after every cold calling centre in Britain closes down and everyone loses their job?"